Something big happens in A Certain Doom. I won’t spoil it for you, since that “something big” seems to be the point of the entire arc. Other things happen outside of that “something big”, but they seem inconsequential compared to it, not just in importance but also in a narrative sense. There’s a sub-plot regarding infighting, but it’s handled quickly, as if Kirkman were ready to get to the “something big”. There was a lot I liked about this volume (including, believe it or not, Negan), but I wish the events had received as much attention as their “something big”.

While reading this volume, I realized how well this comic works in black-and-white. Aside from giving the mood of the story a darker edge, it also helps make the blood and gore more effective. Were this presented in full color, with bright red blood and mottled grey corpses, it would come across as garish and exploitative; in black-and-white, it’s muted, making us focus more on how it affects the characters than the gore itself.

It’s hard to talk about this arc without giving away the “something big”, but it satisfies. The most significant thing to happen in this book, narratively speaking, is the character growth, though it occurs more in the secondary characters than where you would expect it to happen. As always, Kirkman ends the story in such a way that I want to keep reading, and since the series is already up to 172 issues, I figure it will keep me reading for a long time.

"'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'"